To help counter disruption of the Global Positioning System (GPS), the U.S. Air Force is examining whether to buy complementary Positioning, Navigation, and Timing (PNT) systems.
The service is “seeking information from industry about availability of very high technical readiness level (Technology Readiness Level (TRL)≥8) Complimentary Positioning Navigation and Timing (CPNT) technologies to provide PNT information that meet critical navigation needs when GPS service is not available and/or degraded due environmental, unintentional, and/or intentional disruptions,” a business notice said.” The information gathered in response to this RFI [request for information] will be used to assess how different options and/or capabilities can best be utilized in a manner that will gain confidence in performance and foster user adoption.”
The Air Force wants companies to submit summaries of possible CPNT offerings by Oct. 30.
CPNT “refers to a technology capable of providing critical users and operators positioning and/or timing information that is derived independently from Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS),” the business notice said. “The primary objective of considering such technologies is to enhance the availability and resiliency of PNT information to critical navigation systems.”
The Air Force said that “because GPS relies on signals broadcast from satellites in medium Earth orbit (MEO), signal strength at the receiver is low and thus vulnerable to intentional and unintentional disruptions.”
In January, the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) said that L3Harris Technologies [LHX] had delivered the 1,100 pound Navigation Technology Satellite-3 (NTS-3) to AFRL’s space vehicles directorate at Kirtland AFB, N.M., in expectation of a launch by the end of this year (Defense Daily, Jan. 27). NTS-3, which integrates a PNT payload on a Northrop Grumman [NOC] ESPAStar bus, is to demonstrate advanced protection technologies for GPS and other PNT systems.
NTS-3 began in 2019 as one of the Air Force’s first three Vanguard programs.
The Department of the Air Force has said that it plans to re-examine its requirement for 24 military code (M-code) capable Lockheed Martin [LMT] GPS satellites on orbit and whether DoD needs at least three more to meet accuracy mandates (Defense Daily, June 8).
While DoD continues its development of GPS M-code anti-jamming, anti-spoofing chips, cards, and receivers, the modernized GPS ground segment will not be ready for fielding until this December, at the earliest, the Pentagon has said.
Since the late 1990s, the Pentagon has been developing M-code to have a stronger signal and more advanced encryption, but initial operational capability may be years away.
John Sherman, DoD’s chief information officer, is leading the Pentagon’s PNT modernization effort.
The Government Accountability Office said last year that the cost to move to M-code “will likely be billions of dollars greater than the $2.5 billion identified through fiscal year 2021, because significant work remains” (Defense Daily, Aug. 17, 2022).